Los Angeles, CA: Undefeated welterweight contender Giovanni “Gallo de Oro” Santillan (21-0-11 KO’s) held a media work out today at the Capetillo Boxing Academy in East Los Angeles as he gets ready for of his upcoming fight July 7th against NABO Champion and #9 WBO challenger “Hurricane” Sammy Valentin (12-0-9 KO’s) at the A La Carte Pavilion as part of the successful series Boxeo Telemundo. The bout which will open the summer series is schedule for 10 rounds with Valentin title at stake.

“I very excited for this opportunity, its my first time fight on national television and I will take full advantage of it, I’m preparing myself as usual with my Father Memo Santillan and we have had a great camp” said Santillan. “It will be a great fight, Valentin comes to fight and I also come to fight but I will win by KO and take the title back to my Family and fans in San Diego”. he added.

On hand where Promoters Tuto Zabala Jr (All Star Boxing, Inc), Alex Camponovo (Thompson Boxing) and WBO President Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel who was on his way to Brisbane, Australia for the Paquiao-Horn fight this weekend.

There 7 fights on the card. Doors open at 7PM, first fight 8:00 PM. The A La Carte Pavilion is located @ 4050 Dana Shore Drive, Tampa, FL. For Information and Tickets call 813-454-7800. Valentin Vs. Santillan is presented by Tuto Zabala’s Jr., All Star Boxing, Inc in association with Thompson Boxing and will be televised live at 11:35 PM by the Telemundo Network.

Recent world title challenger Romulo Koasicha (25-5, 15 KOs) of Mexico challenges NABO junior lightweight champion and former world title challenger Orlando “El Fenomeno” Cruz (22-4-1, 11 KOs) from Puerto Rico. The bout is scheduled for 10 rounds and will be aired on “Boxeo TELEMUNDO Ford.” The site of the fight will be the A La Carte Pavillion in Tampa, Florida.

Koasicha debu’ed on Telemundo last July where he defeated Guillermo “El Borrego” Avila. The victory positioned him for a showdown with WBO featherweight world champion Vasyl Lomachenko this past September. Koasicha was unsuccessful in his challenge but feels he will only get better from the experience. He plans to show this versus Cruz tonight.

When you last spoke with Fightnews.com®, you were getting ready for your Telemundo debut last July. How surprised were you that you landed a world title fight your very next fight?

I was totally surprised. Some fighters never get an opportunity to fight for a world title. I trained hard and I did the very best I could.

What did you take from the opportunity even though you were not victorious?

It was all positive for me. I also gained some very valuable experience against a very elite fighter. I am confident it will help me alot in my fight tonight.

How familiar are you with Orlando Cruz?

He is a very good fighter. I have a lot of respect for him. I will definitely have to be at my absolute best to defeat him and I have trained this way accordingly.

Do you expect any trouble with the Cruz’ southpaw style?

I have fought southpaws but Cruz has a very unique style. I have had alot of southpaw sparring for this fight. Keep in mind my last fight was a with a southpaw in Lomachenko. It doesn’t get more complicated than that.

You have fought your career at 126 for the most part even though this fight is at 130. Is the plan to stay at this weight class?

126 is my best weight. I wanted to take this fight for the opportunity and for the activity. The plan is for me to return to 126 after this fight but for a real good opportunity I can fight at 130 with no problem.

What kind of fight should the fans expect tonight?

Two determined fighters wanting to get back to the world title fight. The fact that it’s a Mexican fighter vs a Puerto Rican sets the expectations that much bigger.

The third and final day of the 27th annual WBO Convention kicked off yesterday morning, and as anticipated, the open forum of the championship and ratings committees was not without fireworks. The day began with a short video presentation of the charitable work done by both the WBO and numerous WBO champions to promote the WBO “Kids Drug Free” program.

The second order of business came when Vice President John Duggan proposed a resolution that clarified that the position of “vice president of the China Zone” is now vacant and that the China commission is not to use any trademarks or logos. The resolution would also transfer this over to the Asia Pacific region. The resolution would be passed unanimously.

There then followed a brief discussion of the 2015 budget and a proposed amendment to the budget, which passed as well. Following this budget discussion, Joe Cortez briefly spoke of the role of instant replay in Nevada. “Instant replay in Nevada has been in play for two years,” Cortez said, “but it hasn’t been used.” Cortez noted that in Nevada only a referee has the discretion to overturn his or her decision, before adding that the “door was open” to any adjustments that needed to be made in regards to the rule as it stands in Nevada.

From there WBO junior welterweight champion Chris Algieri spoke of the importance of being a role model as a champion.

“Being a champion is a world wide title,” Algieri said, “there are a lot of eyes on you. A lot of young eyes. As a champion you want to present yourself to the world as a champion. As a role model.” Algieri was subsequently presented the WBO Gordy Volkman Man of the Year Award for Outstanding Community Service.

Following the presentation of the Gordy Volkman Award to Algieri, the discussion then turned to where to host the 2015 WBO Convention. Although the Philippines had been the early front runner, having been named in 2013 as the location of the 2015 convention, it was passed over for Florida. Citing concerns over the recent typhoon in the Philippines, and the impact that had on the feasibility of hosting the event there, President Valcarcel accepted a recommendation for the 2015 WBO Convention to be held in Orlando, Florida. Puerto Rico was named as a backup location. President Valcarcel, however, indicated a strong desire to eventually have the WBO convention in the Philippines in the near future.

A brief video fallowed in which highlights of the 2013 WBO Convention in Budapest was shown. Heavyweight Charles Martin was awarded the NABO fighter of the year award at that time as well as several other special recognition awards to journalist Pedro Fernandez, Ulf Steinforth, and Wladimir Klitschko. Wilfried Sauerland was given an award after having been named “European Promoter of the Year” as well.

From there the ever contentious championship and ratings committee kicked off with their session.

This started in the mini-flyweight division, where Japanese matchmaker Ulysses Sato pushed to have his fighter enter the WBO rankings.

There were no requests at junior flyweight and only one at flyweight (to move an undefeated European champion into the WBO ranks). However, the relative lack of controversy in the lowest weight classes was not a harbinger of what would follow, as the discussions became more intensive starting with the junior bantamweight division. Representatives for #5 ranked Paul Butler requested a move to #1 or, in the alternative, to have the winner of the Paul Butler-Jamie Conlan fight be named the mandatory challenger. Conlan is ranked #7 by the WBO. Although Frank Warren’s request to have the winner of the Butler-Conlan fight named “interim champion” was denied, the committee and President Valcarcel did agree to name the winner of that fight as mandatory challenger for champion Omar Narvaez.

At bantamweight several promoters made arguments to have their fighters move into the top ten, most notably #13 ranked Pungluang Sor Sinyu and #14 ranked Lee Haskins.

At junior featherweight the executive committee did acknowledge the difficulties that Guillermo Rigondeaux was having finding opponents willing to take him on. Hedi Taouab Mohammed initially pushed to have his fighter, #4 ranked Zsolt Bedak, move up in the rankings before President Valcarcel inquired about a possible matchup between Bedak and #2 ranked Genesis Servania.

At featherweight a compelling argument was put forth by representatives of King Sports to have undefeated Colombian banger Miguel Marriaga move into the top ten. A proposed fight between #8 ranked British bomber Mark McCollough and #5 ranked Polish fighter Kamil Laszczyk was also discussed, as well as the possibility of the winner of that fight moving up into the top four. Ulysses Sato made a push to have Filipino Mark Gil Melligen, the #13 ranked WBO Oriental champion, move into the top ten.

A familiar name was brought up in the junior lightweight discussions as Main Events pushed to have Edner Cherry return to the top ten on the basis of his nine fight winning streak. President Valcarcel seemed open to the proposal.

At lightweight it appeared highly likely that Juan Diaz might move up from #3 to #1 after the current #1 contender, Ray Beltran, fights the WBO champion Terence Crawford. The prospect of the #1 slot opening up brought out numerous other requests, including one from representatives of #4 ranked Anthony Crolla. However, that request was immediately challenged by Frank Warren, who reminded the executive committee that Crolla “never fought anyone in the WBO top 15” before offering his fighter, #9 ranked Terry Flanagan as a strong candidate to move up.

At junior welterweight the recognition that the title may be at play in the coming months also led to a contentious and colorful discussion. Ruslan Provodnikov’s camp made an argument to have him leapfrog #1 ranked Lucas Matthysse. Several fighters had representatives push to have them move into the top ten, including Emanuel Taylor and veteran Paul Spadafora.

In the welterweight division several promoters jockeyed to have their fighters move up, with the most notable being undefeated Canadian prospect Mikael Zewski, undefeated Fredrick Lawson, and the winner of the upcoming Jeff Horn-Robson Assis fight. Horn, the WBO Oriental Champion, is ranked #11 while Assis, the WBO Latino champion, is ranked #12.

In the junior middleweight division Frank Warren pushed to have #10 ranked Liam Smith move up while representatives of #13 ranked Sirimongkol Singwancha also pushed to have the Thai based fighter move into the top ten.

In the middleweight division the biggest news came when the WBO championship and rating committee voted unanimously to name the winner of a proposed four fighter elimination as the top middleweight. The first fight, between #4 ranked Andy Lee and #1 ranked Matt Korobov, would then face the winner of the Billy Saunders –Chris Eubank fight. Saunders is currently ranked #2 while Eubanks is ranked #9. Also noteworthy in the discussions regarding the middleweight division were proposals to move Abraham Han into the world rankings as well as a push to have Willie Monroe Jr. move up in the rankings.

In the light heavyweight division several fighters received pushes to move up the rankings including #11 ranked Isidro Ranoni Prieto, who already is emerging as arguably the most popular fighter ever from Paraguay.

In the cruiserweight division a second four fighter elimination looks likely as the winner of the upcoming Tony Bellew-Nathan Cleverly fight would fight either #1 ranked Krzysztof Glowacki or #3 ranked Nuri Seferi with the winner being named the mandatory for WBO Champion Marco Huck. Bellew is currently ranked #4 while Cleverly is currently ranked #5.

In the heavyweight division the discussion revolved around Wladimir Klitschko and who his next mandatory challenger would be, as well as when he would be required to fight that fighter. After some discussion, it became apparent that the winner of the upcoming Tyson Fury-Dereck Chisora fight would be named mandatory challenger to the WBO champion, although the timetable of that mandatory defense was still not set in stone.

Rounding off the event was the gala banquet in which the family of the recently deceased Dan Goossen was presented with an honorary WBO belt. Several other awards were handed out, including WBO Promoter of the year (Bob Arum), WBO Fight of the year (Crawford-Gamboa), WHO female fighter of the year (Carolina Duer), WBO fighter of the year (Sergey Kovalev), Spanish Network of the year (Telemundo), and an award to Vasyl Lomachenko, who was given an award for being the WBO champion with the brightest future. Rounding off the gala banquet was a touching and moving ceremony where both Joe Calzaghe and Oscar De La Hoya were awarded lifetime champion awards by the WBO. Both Calzage and De La Hoya gave moving speeches about their ties to the WBO, and how important the WBO belt had meant to them as fighters.

The successful series of Boxeo TELEMUNDO Ford will have the second show of the fall series in Mexico City this Friday, September 27, 2013 at the popular Salon Jose Cuervo. In the main event WBO Youth super flyweight champion David “El Duro” Carmona will defend against fellow countryman Antonio “El Tostado” Tostado in a clash scheduled for 10 Rounds.

Carmona of Mexico City, Mexico is ranked #14 WBO and brings a record of 15-1-4, 8 KO’s, Tostado on the other hand is an undefeated 18-year-old prospect of Jamay, Jalisco, Mexico who served as a chief sparring partner of newly crowned IBF super flyweight champion Daiki Kameda and brings a record of 11-0, 5 KO’s. It should be an all out war between two hungry young contenders.

The weights are in for the Telemundo televised card from the Salon Jose Cuervo in Mexico City, Mexico. The event is being put together by Felix “Tuto” Zabala Jr, All Star Boxing, Inc in association with Producciones Deportivas.